With the lower baggage area cover installed it's time to start working on the upper baggage cover plate. This is less in height and also needs a part cut off from the corners so that it fits the bulkheads upper curve.
This is an interesting job as it's not as trivial to mark a 8 1/2 inch radius on the metal. Additionally the notches in the plate make it difficult to cut precisely so better to keep the cut a bit wider and grind away later with the scotchbrite wheel.
I scratched my hair a bit as I don't have any compass that allows drawing such a radius.
Time to make your own tool :) I took some piece of wood and drilled a hole in it where my drill pin point fitted in (left side on the picture). Then carefully measured 8 and a half inch and drilled a small hole that is just big enoug to put the tip of a sharpie pen through. Eh Voila... you got your compass.
Close up of the pen and the ruler.
Then measured the centerpoint of the circle on the cover and positioned the pin point on it. This allows for a perfect drawing of the contour of my radius.
Used the jigsaw to roughly cut the biggest part away.
Then used the scotchbrite wheel to finalize it. Deburred the edges.
Same done on the other side.
Next job on this upper baggage cover is cutting out a slot to allow the rear seatbelt cable to pass through. There are some wear blocks to be installed.
First measure the center point for your upper radius.
Then measure that radius and use a step drill to make the circle cut out. The left one worked perfectly using the step drill (like always...)
The right one went completly wrong. I think the part was not clamped well I think and ripped a piece out of the metal. Here's how it looked like.
Cold sweat broke out, but fortunatly the rip out is on the bottom side which will be cut out anyhow so I was able to recover it without noticable problems.
Next drawn the left and right perpendicular line and made a rough cut out.
Used some key philes and sanding paper to finalize it.
In the afternoon got some visit of Sven who is starting a new built in Belgium of an RV-8. Always good to find new builders in your neighbourhood.
He brought some "lube" to celebrate, real Russian wodka. Toast on that and good luck and patience with your build.
